


Secrets

by Free_Spirit140



Category: Thomas Sanders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2018-11-17 07:45:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11271153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Free_Spirit140/pseuds/Free_Spirit140
Summary: It’s a Working title. Anxiety is, and always has been accepted. Just not by the people, or traits, you might think. Otherwise known as the one where Thomas and the others start wondering where Anxiety keeps sneaking off to.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I'm not always the bad guy (Anxiety) ~ Thomas Sanders](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/301725) by Kiaraactslikeanxiety. 



Anxiety was getting, well, anxious. He couldn’t tell if it was Thomas, Morality, or Prince that came up with the idea of game night, but as soon as he figured it out he was going to make sure he got himself uninvited. It wasn’t that he disliked spending time with the other traits and Thomas, he loved it, but he had something else he was supposed to be doing on Friday nights. Something, he might add, that he was running late for now. He bounced his leg up and down, continually glancing at the clock and trying his hardest to ignore the looks that Logic kept sending him. He could practically feel the smarter traits eyes burning holes in his skull and it just made him feel even more on edge. His phone buzzed continually in his pocket to the point where he couldn’t tell if someone was calling him or if he was getting so many texts from everyone that the notifications mashed together. He was about to call it quits with the others and pretend to throw a tantrum about losing scrabble (doing so would definitely buy him a couple of hours of “cool down time” before Morality came to check on him) when Thomas and Morality both let out synchronised yawns.

“Alright Kiddos,” Morality yawned again, standing up and packing up the scrabble set “I think we should head to bed.”

Anxiety had to stop himself letting out a cheer at finally being set free. He gave a sarcastic comment to hide his joy before sinking down into his room. He paced back and forth for a while, listening to the movement of the others getting ready for bed. He let out a breath of relief when the lights around him dimmed slightly and quickly turned to the black-out blinds that were hanging over the single small window in the room. He peeked out, seeing nothing but darkness beyond the glass. Great, Thomas was asleep. He grinned, grabbing a skate board that sat under his window. Usually he would freak out and point out to Thomas all the dangers that came with riding a skate board, especially since he knew someone that recently broke their ankle after coming off of one, but Anxiety really had very little options when it came to getting to his destination. He needed something with wheels that was small enough to get through the house un-noticed.

He quickly summoned himself to the real world and headed for the front door of Thomas’ house, freezing once he reached it. He let out a small curse, grabbing the spare keys from the hook next to the door before rushing out of the house. Late, late, LATE! He got a good amount of speed from his run before he threw the skate board to the floor and jumped onto it, using his feet to keep it moving.

The roads were empty due to it being late at night, and he had never been more thankful. It meant he could hog the road without the fear of being knocked over. He pushed himself along as fast as he could for what felt like an eternity but was most likely only five or so minutes before he felt a small tug at his heart, as if it had stopped for a second only to be kick started yet again. He felt a small smile tug at his lips before putting on even more speed. About half an hour later he made it to where he had to be, jumping off the skate board and picking it up before sprinting towards the abandoned building that sat alone at the edge of the town.

The walls were made of grey stones piled up on top of each other, however most of these walls were now crumbling into nothing, being held together by the tight mass of vines that grew in between the stone. Holes in the foundation acted as windows and a slightly larger one that reached the floor acted as a door. Anxiety slowed his run to walk and approached the door. Getting closer he could see the light of a phone casting light onto the face of a grey-clad figure.

“Hey Doubt,” The figure jumped, snapping his head up meet Anxiety’s eyes before relaxing slightly “I thought Terror was meant to be on the door tonight?”

“She was meant to be. Called saying her host was sick, doubt it.” Doubt grinned, winking at Anxiety. Anxiety allowed himself to laugh. “Alright,” Doubt let out a huff as he stashed his phone into his pocket and held his hand out, palm facing upwards, towards Anxiety “Lets see it Anx.”

Anxiety dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small black stone that seemed to shimmer in the little light the moon cast. He placed it on Doubt’s outstretched hand and watched as Doubt turned it over several times, moving it closer to his eye and then further away again, repeating the process several times before Anxiety muttered “Want me to prove it dude?”

“Please.” Doubt held the stone on his palm again, holding it out to Anxiety who held his index finger just above black stone.

Anxiety focused on the thoughts swirling through his mind and allowed several of his darker ones to spark a small amount of power. A spark of lightning slipped from his index finger, meeting the stone and causing the stone to change colour until it resembled a tiny crystal ball, lighting flashing inside, contained within the smooth surface of the stone.   
Anxiety drew his hand back, allowing the stone to flicker back to black.

“Seems legit.” The teenaged trait stated, giving his wrist a small flick, causing the stone to jump off the palm of his hand and into the air. Anxiety let out a small squeak, catching the stone before it could fall to the ground. Doubt laughed “You panic too much Virgil.”

“Really, hadn’t noticed.” Anxiety fired back, light hearted smirk on his face. Doubt shrugged before a daunting look crossed his eyes and he held his hand out again.

“I want to see it again Virge. I need to make sure.”

“Dude, I’m late as it is.” Anxiety stated.

“I… I guess… sorry.”

“Woah, hang on, did you just apologise?”

“Damn… you’re right.” Doubt gave a sad smile.

“Never apologise for who you are.” The two recited together. Anxiety winked, making a small clicking noise with his tongue. He slowly made his way through the door and into the crumbling building.

“Hope your cover gets here soon.” He called behind him.

“Doubt he will.” The other mumbled back. Anxiety chuckled before picking up the pace.

He reached the centre of the house, a room that was just as old and crumbly as the rest of the house, with no furniture and no sign that anything that had ever lived there. A large stone, about the size of one’s head, if not bigger, sat on a make-shift pillar of piled up stones that Anxiety was sure used to belong to the walls. The stone its self, shone with so many different swirling shades of black, purple, pink and blue. Small white specks shimmered here and there but as quickly as they appeared   
they were swept away in a wave of colour, making it appear as if a galaxy lived inside of the stone, swirling and changing. Living.

Anxiety closed his eyes, reaching out to touch the stone, feeling the usual tugging sensation, as if he was being pulled through a key hole, before being suddenly able to breathe again. Distant, thumping music reached his ears and he allowed himself to relax completely. He opened his eyes to see the same room he had been standing in before, with very noticeable changes. It was no longer run down and falling apart, the galaxy stone that had been in the middle of the room before, was now off to the side, pride of place in an indent in the wall, designed to perfectly fit the stone and nothing else. A table with two chairs sat in the centre of the room, a light hanging from the ceiling above it, casting light into the otherwise dark room.

“FinaLLY!” A voice rung out and not a second later he felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked around to find a blond teenager of around 19 years old. She had her blond hair tied in bunches and she was wearing a black top that stopped just above her belly button, torn black jeans that had clearly been ripped so they game just below her knees, and a pair of red ankle boots that matched the red hair bands. She blew a small bubble from her mouth and then continued to chew the bubble gum “I was fed up of waiting for you Virgil!”

“Sorry Belle.” Anxiety gave a sheepish smirk as the embodiment of a girl’s impatience tightened her grip on his sleeve and started to pull him out of the house. Which girl was her host? He didn’t know. They didn’t talk about stuff like that here. It was a rule.

“You better be.” She snapped, pulling him more “They had me sit there and wait for you for an hour!”

“I knew where I was going, I could have found my way on my own.”

“They moved the party outside.” She stated, not caring to elaborate as she pulled him through a small village containing a few bars, clothes shops, a bookstore, and a night club. All of which were currently empty and had all of the lights turned off. The silver light of the moon and millions of stars that filled the sky were the only light sources and they made the world appear so mysterious but also, to Anxiety, quite beautiful.

They eventually arrived at the border of a forest, trees casting shadow over everything and making everything beyond the border dark and ominous. The thumping music from earlier could be heard much clearer now, loud in his ears, but he didn’t mind. Belle pulled out her phone, turning on the torch and using the light it cast to guide them. He let Belle pull him into the forest, knowing already what was in there. Eventually the moonlight became visible once again and they made their way towards the large, round clearing. A DJ stand was set up on the far side, music pumping through the large speakers. Crowds of people were dancing, singing, and generally having a good time. Around the edges were several smaller groups that were sat down talking or dancing separate from the large group in the middle. A table was set up to one of the sides with food and drink spread over it.

Anxiety smiled. Social situations were never really his strong point, at least, not outside. But in here? He knew pretty much everyone here, by name and trait. They were all different and yet the same. Deemed dark to the world of light. No one here judged, because everyone here was judged enough, and knew how it hurt. Everyone here respected each other and their differences, because they were rarely respected and knew how it felt. Everyone knew everyone because they took the time to make new traits feel comfortable, because they knew what it felt like to feel out-of-place. They were all the same. But different. And different was good. This was a second family.


	2. Chapter 2

Belle finally let go of Anxietys hand once she had successfully pulled him towards a small group of 4 at the edge of the large crowd.

“Virgil!” One of them cheered, silencing the rest of the group. She was around 30 years old and had long jet-black hair with green highlights that was tied in a pony-tail and was wearing a bright green suit. A smile was spread on her face as she waved. She bounced forward and wrapped him in hug, causing him to flinch. Contact was contact, no matter who it came from. The girl quickly noticed and pulled away “Sorry, sorry, forgot you aren’t a hug person.”

“Not a problem Jazz” Anxiety smiled at the embodiment of jealousy whilst inspecting the other traits of the group.

A boy of around 16 was standing to Jazz’s left wearing a navy-blue, long sleeve jumper, the sleeves of which were left to hang over his hands, and a pair of bootcut denim jeans.   
A pair of navy trainers were on his feet and his shaggy chestnut hair was covering one of his eyes. Depression, otherwise known as Peter.

A girl around 23 years old stood on Jazz’s other side, curly, wild, ginger hair left to hang at shoulder length. Her brown top, skin tight and clearly made from leather. A slightly darker brown mini skirt was being worn alongside a pair of knee-high brown boots with a high heel. Zoe, she had never told any of them what trait she was but her level of sass and her quick-fire remarks got her accepted as one of them very quickly.

A boy of around 27 stood on the other side of Zoe. He had dark brown hair, and wore a red hoodie with no sleeves and a pair of black jeans. A pair of red vans on his feet. Anger, otherwise known as Josh.

These guys were his best friends.

“What kept you?” Peter asked quietly, shuffling his foot in the dirt.

“Game night.” Anxiety muttered, waving his hand when the others gave him an odd look “Don’t ask.”

Belle huffed, folding her arms and puffing out her cheeks “You could have at least answered our texts.”

“Shit, sorry!” Anxiety quickly grabbed his phone out of his pocket to look at the forgotten texts and calls. 24 texts and 7 missed calls “I totally forgot to check them, I just wanted to get out of the house.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry ‘bout it An.” Jazz waved her hand, smirking “We all know the troubles you have getting out of the house.

“Yeah, what with your host never sleeping.” Belle added.

“Leaving the house is no longer the biggest issue for me,” Anxiety stated “we had the locks changed and the others keep questioning why I need a spare.”

“And that’s a problem becauuuuuuuuse?” Josh prompted.

“I can’t get back to the mind-scape without being in the same place I am summoned to. I’m not as strong as I used to be.” Anxiety huffed.

“Well I’m sure we can get you a new key, you got one on you now?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah, snagged my host’s.”

“Kay then, go find Pessimism, his host is a lock-smith, he’ll be able to do something.”

“Right… where is he?”

“UG I SWARE!” Belle yelled, grabbing Anxiety’s and Josh’s wrists “You guys can handle this later! Let’s go dance!” and with that Belle pulled them into the crowd, the others following behind just as “Die Young” started to play.

\---

Logan couldn’t help but wake up at the sound of someone hitting the floor outside of his room in the early hours of the morning. He checked his alarm clock to see that the time was, 5:13am. Why would anyone be up this early on a weekend?

He grabbed his glasses from his bedside table and made his way to the door of his room. He opened it to find an exhausted looking Anxiety sat on the floor, clutching his head and muttering to himself. Logan couldn’t hear much but he was sure he could hear something along the lines of “Stupid Jazz” what would jazz music have to do with anything? An exhausted Anxiety was nothing new, the trait rarely got enough sleep, because of this a clumsy Anxiety was also nothing new. What was new however, was the skateboard that was led to his side and the smell of alcohol that was coming from him.

“Anxiety?” Logan asked, bending down so that he was on the same level as the fallen trait. Anxiety snapped his head up, scrambling to stand up at the same time, resulting in very evident dizziness as he leant on the wall. “Are you alright? You smell of certain alcoholic beverage and appear to be experiencing dizziness that is often associated with being mildly intoxicated. I was not aware we had any alcohol within the mind-space.”

“I have not been drinking Logic.” Anxiety stated “I don’t know what you’re smelling but it isn’t… isn’t that.” Logan hummed, dropping down and picking up the skateboard from the floor and offering it to the younger personality.

“I was not aware that you skateboarded.” Could this have something to do with how Anxiety was behaving during scrabble?  
“I-… Shut up.” Anxiety snapped, grabbing the skateboard and escaping to his room.

“Curious…”

“Wha’s goin’ un?” Logan looked up to spot both Prince and Morality standing in their doorways. Morality being the one who had spoken.

“We can discuss it once Thomas is awake.” Logan stated, watching as Prince and Morality made their ways back to their rooms. He glanced at the black door just down the corridor before retreating back to his own room.


	3. Chapter 3

When Anxiety had not left his room by 10am Logan deemed it safe to discuss the matter with the others. He instructed Prince to check on Anxiety and ensure he was still asleep whilst he and Morality went to inform Thomas that they needed to talk.

Prince arrived around 5 minutes later, informing them that Anxiety was indeed asleep, and the three of them sat down in Thomas’ living room.

“What’s going on?” Thomas asked, confused.

“It’s about Anxiety, he was acting very odd last night during the games.” Logic replied.

“Oh, oh! I noticed that too! Did you see that time he almost smiled?! How crazy was that?!” Morality chirped, practically bouncing in his seat.

“That’s not what I meant… around half an hour or so before we ended game night Anxiety started glancing over to the clock every couple of seconds and for the last five minutes I could hear his phone buzzing every few seconds.” The others looked confused so Logan continued “And then in the early hours of this morning he fell outside of my room.”

“Oh well there is nothing new about Hot Topic falling over. Nor is him being up late anything new.” Prince interrupted.

“Whilst these are not new occurrences I do have to state a few things.” Logan started “Firstly he was carrying a skateboard, and secondly he smelt of alcohol and appeared to be unable to think of a quick-witted response when questioned about said skateboard.” Logic pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose “Usually I would collect more data before presenting my case however in light of the alcohol factor I feel it wise to bring this up before it becomes a big issue. Morality, correct me if I am wrong, but I did not believe we had any alcohol within the mind space?”

“Oh wowsers no! I got rid of all the alcohol after the incident with Pri-“

“We said we would never speak of that again!” Prince yelled.

“Okay, I defiantly want to hear about that later!” Thomas said, grinning before turning to Logic “What would it matter if Morality got rid of all the alcohol? Couldn’t Anxiety just summon more?”

“Anxiety isn’t that strong Kiddo.” Morality stated, looking slightly serious for once “He used to be, when you were younger, whilst he’s still around now, and still very much an important part of your personality and life, he doesn’t have as much power over your actions anymore.”

“Yes, and the power that one holds over their host closely translates into the power they possess over the mind. Anxiety has enough power to summon small things, such as eye-liner, but he would not possess enough power to summon an item that Morality has deemed banned or controlled, such as alcohol. He has his moments where he has a lot more control over your actions and thus has more power, such as during anxiety attacks, however these are short lived forms of power.” Logic stated “Did you not wonder why Anxiety did not simply change himself back to himself during the ‘Making Some Changes’ video?”

“I mean, I guess I did wonder… you guys were changing yourselves fairly quickly whist Anxiety did need one of you to do it for him…” Thomas mused.

“That is my point, so unless a stronger trait helped him he would be unable to attain alcohol. Not to mention the fact that Morality has placed a control on alcohol which means that the younger traits, as well as Prince, will be unable to summon it, despite there being no age limit on traits drinking.”

“Kids are kids if they are traits or not!” Morality snapped.

“But if he didn’t get the Alcohol in the mind-space where did he get it? There isn’t anywhere that sells alcohol nearby and we are tethered to Thomas.” Prince stated

“Whilst that may be, there is a little-known loop-hole that very few traits are aware of. When a host is sleeping the theoretical “tether” that keeps us within a certain range of our host, becomes weakened and can break and mend easily. In other words, a trait can get as far away from their host as they desire so long as they have an energy source that can sustain their physical, in-world form, to tether to. They can also return to their host and tether back to them so long as the host remains asleep.”

“But who would Anxiety tether to? Or what would he have access to that could hold enough power to sustain him?” Morality questioned.

“A rather fine question that even I, myself, am not sure of. Temporary tethering is a very complicated matter that very few traits have dared look into for fear of damaging themselves or their hosts. It is a very… taboo topic.” Logic mused the thought for a while before clearing his throat and focusing on the others again “In light of this I suggest a close observation of Anxiety in the coming days and weeks. Any signs of abnormal, or peculiar behaviour should be brought to me for full documentation. We must ensure that neither Thomas or Anxiety are in any form of danger.”

“How are we meant to keep an eye on Doctor-Do-Little if he hardly ever leaves his room?” Prince questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“The answer to that is simple. We invite him to more social gatherings outside of his room. Even mundane tasks such as eating can become a social gathering that we invite him.” Logan stated, looking quite smug.

“Oh! I always invite Anxiety to eat with us! He never agrees though.” Patton stated, deflating a little at the last sentence.

“If there is one thing that Anxiety does not enjoy it is being pestered to do something. If we simply refuse to take no as an answer he will, eventually, join us.” Logan was doing very little to hide his smug grin at this point, practically beaming from pride of being the one to come up with a plan. “I also feel that it may be necessary to search his phone as it may hold some insight into what he was doing last night.”

“Woah! Is that really necessary?!” Morality’s eyes widened and a look of horror overtook his face.

“Yeah, that seems like a really bad invasion of his privacy...” Thomas continued.

“I do not see the problem with going through someone’s phone for the purpose of observing their safety.” Logic looked genuinely confused as he observed the look of horror on Morality’s face and the disapproving looks that Thomas and Prince were giving him.

“I am with those two on this one Logan, looking through someone’s phone is a step too far if we have no evidence to say they have done anything wrong. I believe in the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ approach and until Anxiety has been proven guilty invading his privacy like that is a step I am not willing to take.” Princey declared.

“Fine. I shall agree to these terms. So long as we agree that if we gather enough evidence to fear for his or Thomas’ safety, we then go through his phone.” The others nodded in response and Logan sighed and pushed his glasses back onto his nose. “On a lighter note, Morality, I believe Anxiety may require a form of pain relief when he wakes up. As he will be hungover I believe he may have trouble summoning them.”

“Say no more Kiddo! I’ll go take some to his room with a glass of water and something to eat!” Morality sing-songed before sinking out, the others close behind.


	4. Chapter 4

Anxiety woke up regretting letting Jazz talk him into drinking more than normal. The words echoed through his brain, making his headache worse ‘Just one or two more glasses Virgil! Everyone else is having fun!’ he couldn’t be sure that Jazz really was personified jealousy anymore, he wouldn’t be surprised if she represented persuasion.

He groaned, feeling his stomach do flips and pushing himself out of his bed and towards his bathroom. Sure, he always had a few drinks at the gatherings, he found it helped him sometimes, but last night was one of the few instances where it had gotten out-of-hand. It had happened a several times before and Anxiety hadn’t felt nearly as worried as he did now. So why did he have a pit in his stomach making him feel like he had messed up? This was no new feeling of course, far from new actually, it was an everyday occurrence, but he usually didn’t have this bad of a feeling after a night out…

He tried to recall as much of last night as possible whilst he got into the shower, allowing the cool water to ease his throbbing head and relax his body. His stomach was still doing flips whilst also feeling like it weighed a ton from worry. It was enough to make Anxiety actually throw up and he quickly lunged out of the bathtub and towards the toilet, just making it in time to empty the content of his stomach into the toilet bowl instead of all over his bathroom floor. He grimaced, no longer feeling sick now that his stomach was empty. He flushed the toilet and climbed back into the bathtub and under the water from the shower.

He rested his head against the tile wall behind the shower, allowing himself to slowly sink down so he was sitting in the tub with the shower’s flow coating his body and his aching head being supported by the wall. Last night really was a blur after he started drinking, he remembered falling over somewhere along the line, assuming he must have come off his skate board somewhere outside, not even finding it odd that there were no signs of injury. 

He sighed, switching off the shower and getting out of the bathtub, resolving himself to spending the day wallowing in his self-pity in his room. He cleaned his teeth before switching the clothes he had passed out in for a black long-sleeve top and black tracksuit bottoms that acted like pyjamas. He threw himself onto his bed, trying, and failing, to go back to sleep. He sighed, turning to his bedside table to grab his phone, only to find a glass of water, a couple of paracetamol, and a plate of toast. He sat up, confused. Taking the tray that the contents were on and pulling it onto his lap and finding a small note on the tray, under the plate. He took the paracetamol with pleasure, drinking down the entire glass of water in one gulp, before picking up the paper and reading it.

‘Hey Kiddo,  
Hope you’re feeling okay, I came to check on you earlier and you had a slight temperature so I figured you might need some painkillers when you woke up, since, you know, headaches often accompany temperatures! Anyway, I made you toast for breakfast, just in case you are starting to get sick and need something light on the stomach! Sleep well Kiddo!’

Anxiety couldn’t help but be suspicious of that, he was a light sleeper and he was certain that he would have woken up to Morality touching him. Also, it all seemed fairly convenient that this happened after last night…

Had he spoken to someone last night? He remembered a conversation. The memory was hazy but it was there, and it was defiantly after he left the others. Who had he spoken to? Was it Morality? Did Morality realise he was drunk last night? No, why would he tip-toe around it by saying Anxiety had a temperature? He would lecture him instead…

All this thinking was making his head spin even more, and he could feel his stomach protesting to the pain, and quite possibly the toast. No point risking throwing up again, he most likely ran into someone outside the house, and Morality was most likely being his usual over-protective dad figure that got worried when Anxiety slept too late.

He picked up his phone, hissing a little at the brightness which he instantly lowered to the lowest setting as soon as he unlocked it. The group chat had 13 new messages and as he went to open them a 14th appeared. Anxiety sighed, scrolling through the messages trying to catch up. Belle had sent photos and videos of last night to the chat. Several were of all of them gathering in for selfies, a few were of her, Jazz, and Zoe, a few were of the boys, Anxiety clearly forgetting about his no-touching rule in most of them as the others constantly had arms draped over him.

One video caught his eye, it was only ten seconds long so it was evident that it had been filmed on Snapchat, it started with a close up of Belle singing something, which, when Anxiety turned the volume on his phone up, turned out to be ‘We R Who We R’ by Ke$ha. She sung barely a line before the line “So lets go-go-go, LETS GO!” rattled in his ears and Belle extended her arm out fully, allowing a view of the others who were jumping along to the beat, oblivious to the filming. They all looked so happy, even Peter.

It was a little odd to see a 16-year-old drinking but hey, there was no age limit on traits drinking. Where do you think your weirder thoughts come from when your sober? The “I wonder what would happen if I went back in time and brought back a dinosaur?” thoughts.

Anxiety smiled, saving the photos and the videos, before flipping open his gallery and finding a few photos he had taken at some point in the night and sending them. Soon the others joined in, sending any pictures and videos they had until Anxiety was sure he was going to need to delete an app or two to make room for the new photos he could add to the existing album containing photos of him and his friends.

Jazz appeared online just as Peter sent about 23 photos to the chat, and she was quick to send hers too. One of the photos was a picture of a clearly very drunk Anxiety with a clearly very sober Jazz practically draped over him, the Snapchat caption ‘I never get to hug him like this when he’s sober~ hehe~’ pasted at the top.

Anxiety half scowled, half smiled, typing out and sending the message ‘I am never letting you talk me into drinking that much again! Just for that!’

‘You know you love it really!’ Came the reply. And really? Anxiety couldn’t deny it.

Maybe he should start letting the others hug him more often…


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning! Miniture panick attack! Please treda carefully if you might be triggered. I will let you know when it is safe and not safe to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long! Thank you all for being so patient! Just to let you know, in this fic Patton, Logan, Roman and Thomas still do not know Anxiety's name. Hope you enjoy!

‘There’s a problem, call me!’ the message read. Right there in his message preview. Right there under Zoe’s name.

**Miniature Panic Attack coming up! I will let you know when it is over!**

His mind instantly started spinning together many different possibilities, none of which were even remotely good. Fear was tearing at this throat and his lungs felt like they were full of gravel. He wanted nothing more than to run to his room and call her, find out what was going on and find out who was injured/died/sick/ OH GOD THERE WERE TOO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS THAT COULD BE WRONG!! But he couldn’t leave the f*cking commons!

**Over for now**

The others had been inviting to more things for the past 5 days, things that Anxiety had no interest in, but god damn, if Patton started crying when you turned down his request to help him polishing shoes then that was reason enough to accept the request instead.  
Right now he was squished between the Royal-pain-in-the-ass and Logan. Some boring documentary played on the TV screen but Anxiety couldn’t focus!

**I’m sorry! I try to limit the panic attacks I write but this is Anxiety after all. Watch out again**

All he could hear was the blood in his ears and his own damn heart! His eyes stayed focused on the message preview that was half poking out of his pocket and his knee jiggled in a way that was surely being felt by the other on the couch.

**There we go**

After what felt like forever, but was probably only 10 seconds, he got up, made an excuse out of being tired, told them to not bother stopping the documentary, and ran out of the room before he could hear their responses. Getting to his room took far too long for his liking but a soon as he was there he slammed and locked the door and started pacing as he stared trying to get through to Zoe. Each dial tone lasted too long, it was taking too long to get hold of her. Too long, too long, TOO LONG!

“Hello? Verg?” God bless her voice, he had never been so happy to hear it. The dread still sat in the pit of his stomach, but it was eased by how calm Zoe actually sounded.

“H-hi! Zoe! What’s wrong?” He was barely able to breath so talking was a damn near impossible task. He could barely get the words out, yet alone stop his voice from wavering.

“Okay, you’re panicking. You need to calm down,”

“Is that a joke?! You message me saying there’s a problem and then you tell me to calm d-“

“Virgil.” Zoe’s tone was sharp and commanding, radiating confidence “Breath with me. In for 4,” She breathed in, he copied, “hold for 7” he held “out for 8.” He breathed out as she counted “Repeat.” And he did, she counted for him and after a few more times he was fully calm. The worry was there, as always, but he could breathe.

“What’s happened?” Anxiety asked, calmer this time and more stable.

“It’s Peter. I’m not one-hundred percent sure what’s going on but he called the others crying, we’re meeting at 10 on the green.” Shit. Would Thomas be asleep by then? “We get that your host might not be asleep by then, but you have 3 hours so hopefully…”

“We might be lucky…” Anxiety muttered “If I’m not there,”

“We’ll call you so you can hear. Way ahead of you.”

“Thanks… promise me you’ll keep me updated if you hear anything?” Virgil asked tentatively.

“Of course V, I promise. Talk to you later.” The beeping filled his ear, signalling an end to the call.

Hearing Zoe say that took a little of the fear away, he was going to be kept in the loop. The fear was still there, god knows the fear was still there. No one knew what was wrong, just that their friend had been crying. There were too many possibilities and too many variables.

He heard a sharp knock at his door and froze. Had he not told the others that he was going to bed? Had he only imagined telling them that? In the state he had been in he wouldn’t rule that out. He stayed silent, hoping to trick whoever was now knocking at his door into thinking he was already asleep. He thought it had worked for a minute before another knock sounded.

“Just a second!” He called, trying to sound half asleep. He ran his hands frantically through his hair to make it look messed up and rubbed his eyes to partly smudge his eyeliner before moving towards the door. He took a few deep breaths, readying his act. Over the years he had become particularly good at acting, putting up a mask to hide his true feelings from the others, this time he would have to put his acting to a new use. He opened the door, trying his best to act tired, half asleep and annoyed.

“Ah, Anxiety, I apologise if I woke you.” Logan. Logan was standing in his doorway. What possible reason would Logan have to be standing in his doorway?

Anxiety grunted in response, leaning against his doorframe.

“I simply wished to check that you made it to your room okay, you seemed particularly agitated before you left.” There it was. Anxiety had always been good at hiding his anxiety attacks from the others, but this one had sprouted from nowhere and involved his friend. Not Thomas’s friend, his.

“Well, as you can see, I got back fine. Now can you go? I want to go back to sleep.” Anxiety mumbled.

“Yes, of course. Sleep well.” He turned on his heels and walked away.

Anxiety closed the door and let out a breath of relief. Add that to the list of suspicious encounters from the past 5 days. The list was getting longer by the hour.

He shrugged it off, he had bigger fish to fry right now. He grabbed his headphones from his desk and plugged them into his phone, turning it as high as it could go and sat on his bed. He pulled out the small black stone from his pocket and placed it in the palm of his right hand, holding his left index finger over the top of it. He didn’t have to do anything to make the black stone flicker to clear, the lightning visible inside it and more sprouting from his index finger and making contact with the stone. The lightning inside the stone grew busier until it was hard to see the lightning at all, it looked as if the stone was simply glowing in his hand. Anxiety let out a breath of relief as the lightning from his finger stopped and the stone turned back to black. He placed it back in his pocket and pulled out his phone, flicking to the Tumblr app.

…

Prince watched as Logan returned from Anxiety’s room, a black, leather bound notebook in his hand. That meant it didn’t go well. Logan had brought that book out many times the past few days, sometimes for petty reasons such as “He had two scoops of ice-cream instead of one” or “He had matching socks on when he always wears odd socks” and sometimes for genuine reasons, for example the time when Virgil had random burst into laughter at breakfast, spitting a mouthful of orange juice across the table. When Prince had snuck a glance at Anxiety’s phone he had seen nothing but a chat log before Anxiety had shut the phone off and shoved it into a pocket so he could tidy up his mess.

“How’d it go?” Patton asked, worry in his voice.

“He was talking to someone on the phone from what I could hear.” Logan informed them “I got there just as he started yelling at them.” He sat down, opening the book and pulling out a pen.

“Yelling at them?” Prince asked, confused “Why would he yell at them?”

“He said, and I quote, “You message me saying there’s a problem and then you tell me to calm d-“” Logan was already scribbling away as he said that. How he could concentrate on writing one thing and saying another Roman would never know.

“He was yelling at them for telling him to calm down?” Roman asked.

“We cannot jump to that conclusion; however, it is a safe bet.” Logan stated, placing the pen down. “I have written “Anxiety’s phone vibrated in his left pocket, he tried to read the message he received whilst being inconspicuous but moments after his breathing increased in speed and he became very agitated.” Is there anything else either of you would like to add?”

“His knee started bouncing.” Prince stated.

“He practically ran out of the room.” Patton added.

Logan jotted this down and then finished the entry by writing what he had discovered from following Anxiety to his room.

…

At exactly 9:38pm the music in Anxiety’s headphones dipped in volume and the lights around him, including his phone screen, dulled. Anxiety stopped himself from cheering, shooting a text to the group chat telling them he’d be at the meeting place but he might be a bit late, before grabbing his skateboard and sinking out of his room into the real  
world.

He was out the door and down the road in record time, his fear for what was happening to Peter spearing him on. He felt the familiar tug at his heart when he had been traveling for 3 minutes and he took off even faster. He reached the meeting place at 10:05, record time, and practically threw himself onto the grass in front of the others, panting and out of breath.

“I, I made it.” He gasped, shaking from pure adrenalin.

“Yeah, five minutes late!” Belle snapped, folding her arms.

“You might as well have stayed home and let us call you.” Josh growled through his teeth. His arm was wrapped around a sobbing Peter.  
Peter had a small stone, similar to Anxiety’s, in the palm of his left hand, he was rolling it around with his right index finger. The stone was clear, storm clouds rolling inside of it, the clouds getting thicker and darker by the second as small droplets of water formed on the surface of the stone wherever Peter touched, being absorbed through the see-through surface.

“Okay, okay, everyone is just on edge, no need to get worked up. We all knew Virgil would have trouble getting here, we should be thankful he made it.” Zoe stated, turning her attention to Peter “Okay, we’re all here. You can talk to us.”

“I… I…” Peter sniffed, pulling his hand away from where he was rolling the stone, allowing the stone to flicker to blue, and rubbed his eye with his sleeve. He placed the stone into his pocket and sobbed again as he did so.

“It’s okay Pete, whatever’s going on we can sort it.” Jazz assured, she too had an arm around Peter and was now pulling him even closer to her, causing Josh’s contact with the crying teen to break. Josh let his arm drop to his side, shooting a glare at Jazz as it did, but otherwise staying quiet.

Peter played with the bottom of his sleeve, staying silent as he stared at the floor.

“Say it quickly,” Anxiety offered, sitting up from where he had been lying “like ripping off a band-aid.”

Peter gave a small nod, taking in a deep breath, “My host has started taking anti-depressants.”


	6. Chapter 6

There was silence. Absolute silence. No one dared breath, yet alone move.

And then, quick as a rabbit, Jazz grabbed Peter’s stone from his hoodie pocket and shoved it into his hand again. The stone went back to clear, storm clouds rolling inside of it at Peter’s touch.

“Shhhh, it’s okay, it’s okay.” Jazz cooed, stroking his back.

All eyes, watery though they were, shot to Anxiety, all asking the same, silent question, ‘what do we do’. Anxiety knew why they were all looking to him, of course. He and Peter were the only two traits in the friendship group that could be medicated against. They were the only two ‘diseases’ in the friendship group.

As a precaution all depression, anxiety, and any other trait that could be medicated against, had to sit through a very long and boring lecture when they first entered the world of the darker traits. It outlined all the ways they could protect themselves, save themselves, escape. Most tuned out of this little talk, whilst Anxiety had laser focused in. He was so scared that Thomas would start taking anti-anxiety medication that he had even gone as far as to take notes.

“W-we…” He steadied his breathing, getting up and moving to sit in front of the sobbing Peter “We need to decide how you want to play this Pete.”  
Peter let out a small sob, eyes never leaving the stone in his hand.

“Peter. I know this is hard but we need to know what you want if we are going to help you.” Anxiety took Peter’s hands in his own, forcing Peter’s hand to close around the stone 

“Are you going to fight back or surrender?”

“Surrender is not an option! Why would you suggest that?!” Josh demanded, looking ready to punch Virgil for his suggestion.

“Will ya’ shut up?” Jazz demanded “Virgil knows what he’s doing more than you do right now.”

Virgil shot a grateful look at Jazz before turning his attention back to Peter “What’s it gonna be P?”

“I… I don’t want to fight back. It’s better for James…” Peter whispered.

The others looked horrified but Anxiety just let out a shaky breath “Okay.” He turned to face the others “He’s going to be okay, we just need to find somewhere outside of his host’s tether range for him to stay for a while.”

“He’s… gonna be okay?” Belle practically whispered, as if saying it out loud would make it less true.”

“Well, since he doesn’t want to fight back we need to get him somewhere where he won’t tether to the host again before he wakes up so he won’t feel the effects of the anti-depressants… He’ll need to stay there overnight until the council show up in the morning.” Virgil was talking quickly, thinking fast to remember what he had been told all those years back.

“The council don’t come in on Thursday V.” Zoe whispered.

“Then… then he’ll have to stay there until they are in.” Virgil tried to sound more confident then he actually was.

“And where’s he meant to stay genius?! We can’t just pop into our hosts and say “Heya! Our friend needs somewhere to crash for a day or else he’ll pop out of existence, mind if he crashes in the corner of your living room?” now can we?!” Belle snapped.

“No… but if we can sneak him in we might be able to…” 

…

Patton was starting to worry about his dark, strange son. He was the dad, worrying was part of the job description. Anxiety was giving him reason to worry.

He had agreed to meet with Logan and Roman after he helped Thomas fall sleep so that they could monitor Anxiety’s movements. He was a teeny bit late because he’d fallen asleep himself. Okay, so maybe a lot late…

Logan had told them that Anxiety had said something along the lines of “If I’m not there,” from which Logan had drawn the conclusion that Anxiety was going to try and get somewhere that most likely involved sneaking out of the mind-scape and, potentially, out of Thomas’ tether range.

Logan was pacing when Patton entered the common area, smile falling at the sight of his counterpart pacing. Logan turned on him, eyes flashing.

“Anxiety isn’t in his room.” He stated.

“Are you sure he’s not just sleeping?” Patton asked, though the butterflies were starting to surface in his stomach.

“I broke the door down.” Roman piped up from the couch. Patton jumped, he hadn’t spotted the Prince sitting there “He definitely was not there.”

“You broke down his door?!” Morality squeaked.

“Oh relax, I’ll put it back on before he finds out.”

“Have you… have you searched the mind-scape?” Morality asked, scared of the answer.

“Do you think we’d be standing around here if we hadn’t already searched? We’ve been around the entire places 14 times already, checked every corner, closet, everywhere he could fit.” Logan was clearly tense as his pacing increased in speed “I also went to the real world to look around the house… he’s gone.”

“That isn-“

“WHO THE HELL BROKE DOWN MY DOOR?!”

…

It had been decided, Peter was going to stay with Virgil until the early hours of Friday morning when Belle would pick him up and escort him to the council. They had agreed that since Anxiety was defiantly the best choice as he knew more about what to do to help Peter then them, and Belle would escort him as her host wouldn’t wake up until late allowing   
her enough time to drop Peter off and get home herself.

The journey home had proven easier than he expected, Peter had come fully prepared to be leaving. He had brought with him a large suitcase and a bike with, what Virgil could only describe as a waggon, attached to the back. Peter had sat in the wagon, still crying softly, holding the suitcase and Virgil’s skateboard as Virgil peddled the light-blue bike towards Thomas’ house.

Panic was crushing his heart the entire way at the idea of having to pull enough power from Thomas to bring Peter and his suitcase into the mind-scape, the bike would be left around the side of the house, but if Peter had pulled enough power from his host to get his bike and suitcase, as well as himself, out in the state he was in, well, needless to say, Virgil could do it easily. He just didn’t want to spark a panic attack or nightmare for Thomas. But hey, needs must. He could deal with being yelled at by the others.

They had promptly shoved the bike in a bush upon arrival, and Virgil had made quick use of his new key to get the front door open and himself, Peter and the large suitcase into the house. He had to take a minute to calm Peter down, and prepare himself to effectively steal a lot of power from Thomas, but the adrenalin running through him made this easy.

In mere seconds they were sat in Anxiety’s bedroom. Anxiety was breathing heavily and tiredness from the sheer amount of power he had just used was causing his mind to fog extremely quickly but he had to get everything hidden. He didn’t have time to sit back and relax just yet. He stashed Peter’s suitcase under his bed, found Peter a sleeping bag that he often used to cocoon himself in if it was too cold, and hid him in the ensuite bathroom so that he could make a show out of being back.

He took a deep breath and yelled as loud as he could about his door, hoping his tired voice would carry all the way to the commons.

“WHO THE HELL BROKE DOWN MY DOOR?!”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so so sorry I took this long to post the chapter! I hope you enjoy it, I'll try and update faster next time!

The reaction was almost instant. The three other traits had rushed to his room and were at his door in 3 seconds flat.

“Anxiety!” Patton cheered, wrapping him in a hug instantly. Anxiety flinched at the contact. “Where were you kiddo? We were worried!” Patton finally released the darker trait, fixing him with a worried gaze.

“I was outside. In the garden I mean.” Anxiety lied smoothly, the words rolling off his tongue with ease “I was looking at the stars.”

“I checked the garden for you at least three times.” Logan stated, adjusting his glasses “Where were you really?”

“That is where I was. You must not have seen me in the dark.” He adjusted his black hoodie around him, attempting to draw attention to the dark clothing without out-right blaming it for the fact he had been missed.

Logic gave him a calculated look that almost made Anxiety squirm. Almost. Logic’s eyes flicked to the hoodie and then to the matching dark jeans.

“I suppose… that may be a possibility.” Anxiety felt his shoulder sag slightly with relief, allowing more of his body weight to rest on the doorframe “However, when I came to talk to you earlier you said that you had been asleep and were going back to bed.”

“Yeah well, after you woke me up I couldn’t go back to sleep. Now however, I am sufficiently tired enough to fall asleep as soon as I climb into bed. Would you mind putting my door back so I can sleep?”

The others all exchanged nervous glances that Anxiety didn’t miss despite them clearly trying to be sneaky with it.  
“Of course.” Roman finally stated, closing his eyes as Anxiety took a step away from the doorframe.

Within seconds the black door was back on its hinges and Anxiety opened it, nodding his thanks to Roman before closing the door. Anxiety pressed his ear to the door and listened, there were a few hushed whispers which soon died off, replaced with the sound of retreating footsteps. Anxiety quickly peeked out and checked that the others were officially gone before shutting it again and locking it.

He rushed to the bathroom to find a half-asleep Peter in the corner. He headed over, picking him up bridal style and moving into the other room. Anxiety promptly placed Peter down on the bed and was about to go and retrieve the sleeping bag that had fallen away from Peter’s small frame when Anxiety had picked him up, only to be stopped by a small voice calling his name. He looked around at the younger trait to find him shuffling to the very edge of the bed.

“I don’t… I don’t want to be on my own…” the younger murmured. Anxiety took the hidden meaning behind those words, he didn’t just mean he didn’t want to be alone in the room, he meant alone in the bed. Anxiety could understand that, when you had been close to fading only hours ago it would only make sense that you would need something real that you could reach out to, to assure you that you were still real.

He moved over to the bed, climbing into the bed next to the younger and managing to only stiffen slightly when the blue-clad trait curled into his side. Anxiety could only imagine that this was how it felt to be an older brother who’s sibling had had a nightmare and wanted to sleep in your bed. He chuckled as Peter let out a content sigh in his sleep, snuggling more into Anxiety’s side.

Yeah. He would have to start letting the others hug him more often.

…

“Can we now agree that it is necessary to check his phone?!” Logan was practically yelling as he frantically paced the common room, far different from his usual calm self.

“I don’t think we should jump to checking his phone…” Patton murmured from his position on the couch.

“Perhaps we should follow him next time he goes out?” Roman asked.

“How? If Anxiety is leaving Thomas’ tether range then he must have something else to tether to that we do not have a connection with. As soon as he leaves we will be unable to follow him.” Logan’s pacing halted as he addressed the Prince, eyes narrow and calculating as he ran a few scenarios through his head.

“At least we’d know that he was definitely leaving.” Roman argued.

“How would we even know he’s going out? He doesn’t go every night.” Patton asked, chewing his lip.

“One of us could take watch in the living room, out of sight.” Roman suggested, creative glint in his eyes “What if we didn’t have to leave the tether to follow him?”

“You have caught my interest.” Logan stated “Explain.”

“Do you know how to drive Logic?”

…

Virgil flopped back on his bed. It was Friday evening and it had been a long day to say the least. He had at least slept during the night, which was more then he could say he usually did. Something about Peter hugging him relaxed Anxiety in a way that allowed his brain to actually switch off. Maybe the physical contact helped ground him and give him something else to focus on? He wasn’t sure. He had woken up at 4am, intentionally once, to help Peter get ready to leave. At exactly 4:45am Belle had texted to say she was outside and then came the task of pulling Peter, the suitcase and himself out of the mindscape. It was a lot harder this time due to a lack of adrenalin fuelling his actions, but he managed it somehow.

He had been exhausted after that, but the nagging voice in the back of his head wouldn’t stop whispering. What if they got hit by a car? What if the council couldn’t do anything right away and they sent Peter back to his host? What if, what if, what if?

At just past 7am Belle called him, announcing that Peter had been given a house in the Stone. The council had created it, using their collective powers to set up a small cottage on the edge of down. There was a huge number of traits living in the Stone, an equally huge number of houses set up to accommodate them, a house for each. It was a wonder there was any room to put more up. But that was the beauty of a world that could expand indefinitely.

Belle went on to explain that the council had broken Peter’s bond to his host so that he would never be at risk of being tethered to his host again if he went too close to the house.

And that was that.

The day went on as normal.

Anxiety was invited to game night once again, which led him to text the others to inform them well in advance that he was going to be late tonight. However, mercifully, that text became null and void. Game night ended earlier then the last time, as in, an hour earlier. Virgil was expecting Thomas to struggle getting to sleep, so he didn’t text the others to tell them about the change in timing.

But not ten minutes after he flopped onto his bed, the lights dimmed around him. Virgil froze, not daring to breath. Something was going on that he didn’t know about, something he was going to have to add to his mental list of weird occurrences from the past week.

He sat up quietly, moving to look out of the window. Black. He glanced at the door, mentally debating with himself before moving out of his room and into the hallway.

He opened Roman’s door first, since it was the closest to his room, surprised to find the room completely dark with the exception of a crown-shaped nightlight, the Prince asleep in the bed.

He closed the door as quietly as he could before moving to Logan’s. Logan was sleep too, or at least Anxiety guessed he was. The room was pitch black and Anxiety could see exactly nothing.

Anxiety slipped towards Patton’s room but was stopped by Patton calling out to him from down the hall. He turned to look at the parental trait who smiled, waving.

“Hey kiddo! Why are you out of bed?” Patton asked, tilting his head like a confused puppy.

“I should be asking you that Pat.” Anxiety folded his arms over his chest, fixing the older with a stare he hoped showed that he was only joking.

Patton giggled “I was making cookies kiddo! I put them in the oven before game night so I needed to take them out and decorate them before bed. Help yourself to them if you want kiddo. I’m off to bed! Sleep tight.”

Anxiety watched Morality skip into his room with a quirked eyebrow. Great. Now he needed to detour to the kitchen to grab some of the cookies or else Patton would be hurt that he hadn’t eaten any. He sighed, moving to the kitchen to grab a handful of the heart-shaped cookies that were on the cooling board.

He wasted no time in heading back to his room after eating. He grabbed his skateboard and was in the living room seconds later, sat on his usual step. He paused there for a second, grabbing the keys from his pocket before heading out of the house.

Logan watching on.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year everyone! It's just gone 1:30am on the 1/1/2018 here in the UK, so I figured I would start the new year with a bang! Let’s make it a good one everyone!

Logan climbed into the car, Thomas sprawled on the back seat, Patton positively bouncing with Thomas’ head in his lap and Prince in the passenger seat. Prince was turned in his chair, looking out of the back window to watch as Anxiety vanished around the corner on his skateboard.

“Okay, we’re far enough away, go.” Roman stated, sitting down facing forwards again and putting his seatbelt on.

Logan put the car into gear and pulled out of the drive. His control was abysmal at best, the car jittering and stalling whenever he tried to accomplish a gear change. The original fear had been them getting too close to Anxiety and him noticing the car following him, but that soon changed to the fear of being too far behind and losing him. Patton kept running his hand through Thomas’ hair, trying to keep him from waking up from a combination of the movement and the loud objections from the engine.

“I thought you said you knew how to drive!” Prince complained, hand grabbing the handle above his head in a death grip that had his knuckles turning white.

“I only know the theory behind it!” Logan snapped “I’ve never actually driven! All that I have ever required was the theory to help Thomas drive!”

“Let me drive then, stop the car.” Roman demanded.

“What do you know of driving? Creativity is not needed nor is it present when driving!”

“I can ride a horse, it can’t be harder than that!”

“A car and a horse are extremely different. For a start a horse does not have a clutch peddle to change-“

“Save me the technical talk Calculator Watch, we’re losing him!”

“I’m surprised he hasn’t noticed us yet,” Patton murdered from the back seat “He’s so vigilant and the engine isn’t exactly being quiet…”

“He’s probably got his headphones on.” Prince concluded as they took yet another turn.

“I doubt Anxiety would be as foolish as to listen to music when he is on a skateboard in the middle of the road. Worst case scenario, he’s noticed we’re following him and is trying to lose us by taking all these turns.” Logic stated.

“Less chit-chat from the driver please! Concentrate on keeping us moving!” Roman ordered.

The ride continued like this for a while until eventually they reached what was clearly a dead end at the edge of town. As soon as they noticed the sign that signalled the upcoming dead end Roman ordered Logan to turn down a side street and park up out of sight. Roman summoned two dark-coloured hoodies, handing one to Logan before putting one on himself.

“Keep an eye on Thomas, Pat. Make sure he doesn’t wake up, or else we’re all in trouble.” Roman stated.

Patton nodded in return and Roman and Logan got out of the car and took off running towards where they last saw Anxiety. What they found was a run-down building with a large group of people standing around in a faint resemblance to a queue.

“What on earth…” Logan mumbled, only to have Roman tug on his sleeve. He turned to face the younger trait and saw him pointing at something with a look of shock. Logan directed his gaze to where Roman was pointing and found what he was pointing at.

Anxiety was in a small group of people off to the side of the large group. What was shocking however was that one of them had an arm wrapped around a laughing Anxiety’s neck, leaning on him and causing his knees to buckle and both of them to land on the floor, the entire group laughing as one of the ones that was standing offered the fallen two a hand each.

Logan and Roman watched the exchange with equally shocked expressions, it was like watching a different trait. A moment later another person ran up and joined the group and just like that the small group Anxiety was with moved to merge with the larger group.

“Let’s get closer.” Roman whispered, pulling on Logan’s arm and dragging him closer to where Virgil was now standing.

“That would be ill-advised.” Logan whispered back, although he didn’t put up much of a fight against the Prince’s hold “He may notice us.”

“Please, have you seen how caught up he is with that group of people? He wouldn’t notice us even if we walked up to him and slapped him in the face.” There was resentment in  
Roman’s voice as he said it, eyes narrow as they got close enough to the group of five to hear what they were saying.

“I mean, I feel bad for him and all but don’t you think this is better for him?” One of the group said, a girl with blond hair asked, blowing a bubble with some bubble gum as if to punctuate the sentence.

“She has a point.” A girl with bright orange hair stated “He aint being bullied by the other traits anymore.”

“That’s true,” Anxiety spoke this time “but when you were as close to fading as he was that can overshadow the good things. Give the kid time and I’m sure he’ll be back to his normal self, if not better.”

Logan and Roman exchanged looks, not daring to speak.

Eventually they reached the front of the line, Anxiety and his friends stopped at the door, speaking to the woman at the door for a second with their backs turned to Logan and Roman. They were allowed in after that, leaving Roman and Logan to confidently face the woman before them.

She was a lanky woman, closely resembling a stereotypical witch to Roman’s mind. Her eyes narrowed on the two of them and both traits squirmed, pulling their hoodies tighter around themselves.

“Hoods down.” She snapped, voice harsh.

“Ah, that won’t be necessary will it?” Roman asked, strapping on a classic prince charming smile, not that she could see it.

“What are ya trying to pull?” The woman demanded, turning her head slightly to try and get a better look at their faces “If ya won’t pull down ya hoods then ya best show me ya stones.”

“Our stones?” Logan asked. The woman’s head snapped back straight, eyes focusing on Logan with a touch of fear evident in her eyes.

“Of course, our stones!” Roman smiled again “How could we forget?” He started patting himself down and checking his pockets, Logan reluctantly following his lead “It appears I forgot mine, what about you?”

“Me as well.” Logan stated, thanking the stars that Thomas was a good actor and that it could rub off on his traits.

“No stones, no faces, no entry!” The woman snapped “Now get out of here before I call someone. I get a funny feeling from the both of ya.”

“We’re going, we’re going!” Roman insisted, holding his hands up in surrender as some of the people behind them took threatening steps towards them having heard the conversation. Roman grabbed Logan’s sleeve and pulled him away from the crowd and back towards the car. As soon as he was sure the crowds focus was no longer on them he changed direction, heading back towards the building.

“Roman, what do you think you’re doing?! We’re going to get caught!” Logan whisper-yelled.

“Oh hush, we’ll be fine. Need I remind you, I’m a prince! I have a sword!” Roman smirked as he pulled Logan around the side of the building, inspecting the stone wall closely.

“What exactly are you looking for?” The logical trait demanded, folding his arms over his chest.

“A crack in the foundation, a hole we can look through, anything that lets us look inside. There is no way an old building like this doesn’t have a peep-hole of some kind.” Roman stated, grabbing his phone from his pocket and turning on the torch t to help him look “You going to help Glasses, or just stand there?”

Logan huffed, unfolding his arms and grabbing his phone to use as a torch too. Eventually Roman found a hole between the stones big enough to see through with one eye. He waved Logan close to him whilst pressing his chest to the stone and eye to the hole. He couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped his lips, hand blindly reaching for Logan. As soon as his hand made contact with the logical trait’s shoulder he pulled away from the wall and guided the other trait to stand in front of it.

“Get a load of this.” He whispered as Logan moved his face closer to the hole.

On the other side of the wall was a large stone, swirling with colour. As Logan watched a girl, barely older then thirteen, approached it. As soon as her fingers brushed its surface the young girl vanished from sight, a group of people piling in through the door after her to do the same. Logan pulled back, turning to face Roman, who had sunk to the floor to sit cross-legged.

“What the hell is that?” Roman demanded.

“I believe that is what Anxiety has been tethering to when he hasn’t been tethered to Thomas.” Logan stated, adjusting his glasses as he sat down as well “It appears to be similar to the mindscape, it allows traits to ‘sink down’ into it. Most likely, it is its own little world.”

Roman let out a low whistle, eyes turning back to the wall “What do you think it’s used for?”

“I don’t have enough information to tell you that.” Logan stated.

“Can you guess?” Roman asked, impatience lacing his words.

Logan shook his head.

“Great. So, what you’re telling me is, this was all for nothing?!” Roman demanded.

“Hardly.” Logan scoffed “We know Anxiety is taking part in temporary tethering, and we know where he is going. This was a very informative trip.”

“But what are we meant to do with this information?” Roman asked.

“We have to decide that as a group, back at the house in the morning. Let’s go.” Logan stood up, heading back towards the car, Roman following his lead.

Patton greeted them with a worried expression when they returned to the car. Roman set about filling him in as they started the long and bumpy ride back to the house.

“What are we going to do?” Patton asked, fear evident in his voice as they pulled back onto the driveway a while later after Roman was finished filling him in.

“We have to decide that as a group, in the morning, when Thomas is awake.” Logan repeated.

“Decide what when I’m awake?” A sleepy voice came from the back seat.

All eyes shot to the back seat, horror striking the three traits as their eyes made contact with the clearly awake Thomas.

Anxiety was definitely not close enough to be in tether range.


End file.
